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It was far and away the best art exhibit display I have ever seen. The exhibit designers used the height of the Park Avenue Armory to show over 650 red and white quilts. The show could have been tedious, but instead it was exhilarating to walk around and through the flying quilts.

A few weeks ago Quilts Inc., the organization that puts on the International Quilt Festival announced that they extended their application deadline for the special exhibit "Ruby Julbilee: Celebrating 40 Years". I had not thought of entering a quilt, but once the May 31st deadline extension was announced, I realized this was the perfect time for me to make a red and white quilt. Not only have I been thinking about red and white quilts for years, but I too will be celebrating my 40th birthday in a few months.

Since I didn't have a lot of time to make a quilt, and because I have recently become obsessed with bow tie quilts, I made bow ties. On April 20th this is what I had - a handful of 5" finished bow ties.

My goal was to not buy any red fabrics and just use what was in my stash. I did buy a couple of yards of white Kona, and I took a handful of reds from my mom's stash after I depleted mine. Exploring the variety of "reds" there are - tomato reds, orangey-reds, crimsons, dusty reds, fuchsia reds - is what was most interesting to me during the constructing phase.

This morning I finished up the striped binding, and soon the quilt will have its official portrait taken so I can enter it for consideration. I don't know if it will be accepted, but I do like that it is my own little Ruby Celebration.

(And just between you and me, I might like the back just a little bit more than the front.)